Texas is a strong state, always has been. We have zero income tax. [Though many claim the business tax Perry created amounts to one .. and is unconstitutional …. Perry is being sued over this]

We have a Republican legislature, a Republican Supreme Court. We are a Right-to-Work state, and have vast resources including oil and natural gas. We also have a strong manufacturing segment.

As Romney said, Perry taking credit for the conditions that make Texas great is like Al Gore taking credit for inventing the internet.

One more thing, Texas is a very large and diverse state with over 25 million people. Massachusetts is small, and only has a little over 6 million. In raw numbers of course Texas is going to create more jobs. One has to look at percentages of growth and other factors to measure performance.

Our friends at Pennsylvanians for Palin have done an incredible job of comparing the records of governors Huntsman, Palin, Pawlenty, Perry, and Romney on a variety of issues, using information available from the official records of each governor’s state, as well as information from U.S. government agencies when appropriate .

Whitney Pitcher wrote about the comparison between these five governors on debt and liabilities, an article Governor Palin shared with her supporters via Twitter. You can read it here.

On jobs, the numbers for Palin, Perry and Romney, look like this:

During Sarah Palin’s governorship (December 2006 – July 2009)

· Alaska ranked 2nd in the nation for job growth.

· Alaska ranked 3rd in the nation for change in the unemployment rate relative to the national average.

During Rick Perry’s governorship (December 2000 – May 2011)

· Texas ranked 4th in the nation for job growth.

· Texas ranked 23rd in the nation for change in the unemployment rate relative to the national average.

During Mitt Romney’s governorship (January 2003 – January 2007)

· Massachusetts ranked 47th in the nation for job growth.

· Massachusetts ranked 34th in the nation for change in the unemployment rate relative to the national average.

One interesting note: Out of the five governors, only Rick Perry and Sarah Palin inherited unemployment rates higher than the national average. Alaska’s unemployment rate was significantly higher. The rest were in states with below average unemployment, even Romney, though only by 0.2%.

During their tenure both Palin and Perry lowered their states’ unemployment rate significantly below the national average, Palin more than Perry.

Rick was indeed a democrat, and yes, Texas democrats were, and are, just a liberal as the rest. Back in the 70’s and 80s most Texas politicians were democrats. Texas was having terrible times. The tide was starting to turn, and Karl Rove recruited Perry to change to the Republican Party.

Perry was indeed Gore’s campaign manager in 1988.

Now being a democrat and then maturing and becoming a Republican is not uncommon. Many excuse Perry by reminding everyone that Ronald Reagan was a democrat voted for FDR, and even counted him as one of his favorite presidents. That said, Perry was a democrat during the entire Reagan Revolution, when most Texans, even democrats, voted for Reagan!

From the Ft Worth Star Telegraph:

1989: At age 39, switched from Democrat party to Republican party “I intend to vote the same convictions,” Perry said. “The only difference is there will be an R beside my name.”

Somehow I imagine that animal story is BS, as I’ve never heard of it, and believe me, that would have come up before. That said, if someone can produce rock solid, 100% proven evidence, we’ll certainly share with our readers.